john brennan the architect of the obama administration's drone program strongly defended their use saying strikes only take place to prevent terror threats, not as punishment for them. >> i think there's a misimpression on the part of some of the american people who believe that we take strikes to punish terrorists for past transgressi transgressions. nothing could be further from the truth. we only take such actions as a last resort to save lives when there's no other alternative to taking an action that's going to mitigate that threat. >> democratic senator ron widen, when has demanded more insight to the legal justification, pressed brennan on the issue. >> you believe that the president should provide an individual american with the opportunity to surrender before killing them? >> any american who joins al qaeda will know full well that they have joined an organization that is at war with the united states and that has killed thousands upon thousands of individuals, many, many of them who are americans. so i think any american who did that should know well that they, in fact, are part